Ringing ears & smiles

Sorry, wrong Mogwai.

That's better. THIS is Mogwai.

After another exciting day at MCV yesterday, where my afternoon was spent trying to track down a cop who seems to have been flagrantly disregarding Victoria Police policy regarding beats and beat users (ah the thrill of being on top of a story as it unfolds) I went for a long, brisk walk from Fitzroy to Richmond through possum territory. There's a lot of the furry little buggers!

My destination was the Corner Hotel, and a gig by Scottish post-rock quintet Mogwai.

Drinks were held on the Corner rooftop before the show in the excellent company of tobytoby, mskp, davethescot and toby's bandmate Tom. Being broke (again) I skipped dinner - probably a foolish thing - in favour of a couple of glasses of wine. Yes, it was one of those 'choose between booze or food' nights, so being the lush that I am (and also because I'd had a huge lunch) I went with sweet, sweet alcohol.

Once we'd been joined by my mate Josh, our party headed downstairs just in time to catch the opening song from second support act My Disco. What splendidly rocking, thin-legged, tight-trousered, serious young men they are! Such intense, discordant, angular, Albini-esque tunes. Excellent stuff.

Then it was time for Mogwai. Aahhhhh.

I love a band who not only entertain me with slowly building, thunderous guitar crescendos and fragile keyboards and vocoder-ed voices, but whose deepest, loudest bass notes massage my internal organs. They bathed us in noise, in surging waves of sound that were by turns haunting, devestating, soulful and cataclysmic.

After the show, back in the front bar, one of our crew said it felt like we were talking underwater. It was like that. We'd been submersed in sound for an hour and a half. It was fantastic.

And thanks for the lift home, Dave!